Inauguration

So today’s the day. Today President Obama hands over the office to Donald Trump.

My first plan for this day was to get a pizza and head to the bar after work, but more and more I’m thinking I’ll just head home with a bottle of rum. I might still order pizza, but I definitely need to drink tonight.

I’ve been saying for a while now that I think we’re really getting President Pence, and I may as well explain my thinking. The way I see it, Trump will have to either be a good little puppet for the GOP; or just be a loud, attention-grabbing figurehead while Pence does all the work of being President. If he tries to do his own thing, the Republican-controlled Congress will impeach him and remove him from office, making Pence the actual President.

He’s provided plenty of justifications for impeachment, they won’t have to work very hard to make it believable. Assuming, of course, that they even bother maintaining the illusion of legitimacy rather than just outright declaring that they’re removing him because he won’t do what they want. The veneer of government feels awfully thin these days.

Trump’s general lack of interest in actually doing the job of the President suggests that he’s going for “loud, attention-grabbing figurehead”. The rumor that Trump’s campaign approached Kasich for Vice-President and said the deal would be for Kasich to handle all domestic and foreign policy while Trump was off “making America great again” doesn’t help with this assessment. Well, getting attention is what he does best, I suppose.

Of course if I’m right about that, it means that for all the rhetoric about going against the establishment, the Trump Administration may well be the most establishment presidency we’ve ever seen.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens in the next few years. But I’m not going to be watching the inauguration.